Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:
Prelims level: Three Gorges project
Mains level: India’s stationary course in the shipping value chain
Central idea
The article explores the contrasting trajectories of China and India in the maritime industry, emphasizing China’s dominance in shipbuilding and India’s focus on seafaring labor and ship management. It underscores the missed opportunities for India in shipbuilding, leading to a decline in its global maritime standing. The absence of a strategic focus on shipbuilding and the decline of state-owned enterprises pose challenges for India’s maritime growth.
Key Highlights:
- The Yangtze River, deeply embedded in China’s history, serves as a blend of tradition, culture, and modern commerce, symbolized by the Three Gorges project.
- China’s maritime success, highlighted by its dominance in shipbuilding, stands in contrast to India’s focus on seafaring labor and ship management.
- India, once ahead in maritime endeavors, faces challenges as its shipbuilding capabilities lag, impacting the overall growth of the shipping industry.
Key Challenges:
- India’s maritime industry confronts limitations in shipbuilding, ownership, and financing, contributing to a decline in its global standing.
- The absence of a strategic focus on shipbuilding, coupled with the decline of the state-owned Shipping Corporation of India, has hindered India’s maritime progress.
Key Terms:
- Three Gorges project: A monumental hydropower initiative on the Yangtze River, symbolizing China’s modern engineering achievements.
- Seafarer: An individual engaged in maritime activities, such as navigation, on vessels like ships and boats.
Key Quotes:
- “China, by 2020, was making half of all ships in the world,” a stark contrast to India’s negligible share in shipbuilding.
- “Indian seafarers and their management companies contribute an estimated $6 billion in foreign exchange annually.“
- “India’s Maritime India Vision 2030 lacks a clear plan for shipbuilding and owning,” hindering its growth in the maritime industry.
Key Statements:
- The article underscores the transformative significance of the Three Gorges project, symbolizing China’s advancement in modern engineering.
- India’s historical lead in maritime activities has been overshadowed by its limited involvement in shipbuilding and related sectors.
Key Examples and References:
- The Three Gorges project exemplifies China’s commitment to modern infrastructure and technological prowess.
- The decline of the state-owned Shipping Corporation of India serves as a reference point for India’s challenges in sustaining its maritime industry.
Key Facts and Data:
- China, contributing to 50% of global ship production by 2020, reflects its dominance in the shipbuilding sector.
- Indian seafarers and their management companies collectively contribute an estimated $6 billion in foreign exchange annually.
Critical Analysis:
- The critical analysis emphasizes the missed opportunities for India in the shipbuilding sector and the resultant impact on its overall maritime growth.
- The decline of the state-owned Shipping Corporation of India is presented as a significant factor influencing India’s maritime capabilities.
Way Forward:
- The article suggests that India should strategically prioritize shipbuilding to enhance its global maritime presence, emphasizing economic and strategic benefits.
- An integrated approach to shipbuilding would not only contribute to economic growth but also strengthen India’s naval capabilities, enhancing its geopolitical standing.
Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:
Prelims level: Inland Waterways
Mains level: Innlad water transit and its significance
- Month after setting sail on the Ganga from Patna, a vessel carrying 200 metric tonnes of food grains for the Food Corporation of India (FCI), docked at Guwahati’s Pandu port on the southern bank of the Brahmaputra.
- The occasion is believed to have taken inland water transport, on two of India’s largest river systems, to the future.
Why is a Ganga-Brahmaputra cargo vessel in focus?
- There is nothing unusual about a cargo vessel setting sail from or docking at any river port.
- This has rekindled hope for the inland water transport system which the landlocked northeast depended on heavily before India’s independence in 1947.
Inland water service: A necessity for the NE
- Seamless cargo transportation has been a necessity for the northeast.
- Around Independence, Assam’s per capita income was the highest in the country.
- This was primarily because of access for its tea, timber, coal and oil industries to seaports on the Bay of Bengal via the Brahmaputra and the Barak River (southern Assam) systems.
- Ferry services continued sporadically after 1947 but stopped after the 1965 war with Pakistan, as Bangladesh used to be East Pakistan then.
- The scenario changed after the river routes were cut off and rail and road through the “Chicken’s Neck”, a narrow strip in West Bengal, became costlier alternatives.
- The start of cargo movement through the Indo-Bangladesh Protocol (IBP) route is going to provide the business community a viable, economic and ecological alternative.
How did the water cargo service through Bangladesh come about?
- The resumption of cargo transport service through the waterways in Bangladesh has come at a cost since the Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade was signed between the two countries.
- India has invested 80% of ₹305.84 crore to improve the navigability of the two stretches of the IBP (Indo-Bangladesh Protocol) routes — Sirajganj-Daikhowa and Ashuganj-Zakiganj in Bangladesh.
- The seven-year dredging project on these two stretches till 2026 is expected to yield seamless navigation to the north-eastern region.
- With this, the distance between NW1 and NW2 will reduce by almost 1,000 km once the IBP routes are cleared for navigation.
Policy boosts to IWs
- The Government has undertaken the Jal Marg Vikas project with an investment of ₹4,600-crore to augment the capacity of NW1 for sustainable movement of vessels weighing up to 2,000 tonnes.
- Sailors who made the cargo trips possible have had difficulties steering clear of fishing nets and angry fishermen in Bangladesh.
- These hiccups will get sorted out with time.
Why go for IWT?
- Inland Water Transport (IWT) is a fuel-efficient, environment friendly and cost effective mode of transport having potential to supplement the over-burdened rail and congested roads.
- It is a boon where road transport is least feasible.
Back2Basics: Inland Waterways
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:
Prelims level: Assam Inland Water Transport Project
Mains level: Inland water transport in India
India and the World Bank signed a loan agreement of $88 million for Assam Inland Water Transport Project.
Assam Inland Water Transport Project
- A majority of Assam’s more than 361 ferry routes cross the Brahmaputra or serve its islands, providing a crucial means of transport to thousands of commuters in both the urban and rural areas of the Brahmaputra Valley.
- The project will draw guidance from ‘working with nature’ principles that aim to design new infrastructure or rehabilitate existing infrastructure in a way that works with natural river processes.
- The terminals will have better access, lighting and signage while the new vessels will allow for individual seats, and separate toilets. Moreover, a strengthened regulatory regime will ensure reduction in overloading, adherence to time schedule and better crew standards.
- The Project will help Assam improve the passenger ferry infrastructure and its services and strengthen the capacity of the institutions running the inland water transport.
Significance
- Inland Water Transport is also a more sustainable mode of transport. And Assam has the largest network of navigable waterways in India.
- It provides low-carbon and low-cost options when compared to the cost of constructing and maintaining flood-resilient roads and bridges across the long stretches of the Brahmaputra river.
- Technically better-designed terminals and energy-efficient vessels (both new and retrofitted) will make the ferry services more sustainable with least disruption to nature.
